Precompiled Distributions of
Emacs for Windows NT and Windows 95/98/2000
Version 20.7
June 13, 2000
This directory contains source and precompiled distributions for GNU
Emacs on Windows NT and Windows 95/98/2000. This port is a part of
the standard GNU Emacs distribution from the Free Software Foundation;
the precompiled distributions are provided here for convenience since,
unlike Unix, the majority of Windows users do not have access to a
compiler (and, besides, do you really want to compile Emacs when you
don't have to?).
If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
already):
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
The above web document is a far more complete version of this README
file. If you don't have access to the Web, however, then read on.
* IMPORTANT LEGAL REMINDER
If you want to redistribute any of the precompiled distributions of
Emacs, be careful to check the implications of the GPL. For instance,
if you put the emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz file from this directory on
an Internet site, you must arrange to distribute the source files of
the SAME version (i.e. emacs-20.7-src.tar.gz).
Making a link to our copy of the source is NOT sufficient, since we
might upgrade to a new version while you are still distributing the
old binaries.
* Distributions in .tar.gz format
Emacs is distributed primarily as a set of large gzipped tar files
(*.tar.gz). Because Emacs is quite large and therefore difficult to
download over unreliable connections, it is provided in several
combinations, ranging from the complete source plus executables, to
just the minimal amount needed to run without any source, plus a
couple of optional packages. Here are the combinations (i386 in the
name indicates a tarball contains executables compiled for
Intel-compatible x86 systems):
+ Primary precompiled distribution, including lisp source:
emacs-20.7-fullbin-i386.tar.gz
+ Minimal precompiled distribution, which excludes lisp source:
emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz
You can download emacs-20.7-lisp.tar.gz to get the lisp source, if
you later decide you want it - it is useful for understanding how
packages work, and how they can best be setup or customized.
NB. If you just want to run Emacs, get one of the distributions above.
+ Bare executables, only useful if you want to get the complete source
release below, but can't compile Emacs yourself:
emacs-20.7-barebin-i386.tar.gz (requires emacs-20.7-src.tar.gz)
+ Undumped executable, only needed for rebuilding Emacs after changing
certain core lisp files:
emacs-20.7-undumped-i386.tar.gz
+ Optional package providing the Library of Emacs Input Methods for
typing non-ascii characters, notably Chinese, Japanese and Korean,
but also including European and other character sets:
emacs-20.7-leim.tar.gz
+ The complete official source for Emacs:
emacs-20.7-src.tar.gz
+ The complete official source for LEIM:
leim-20.7-src.tar.gz
* Distributions in multi-file .zip format
A second distribution in the form of multiple small .zip files is also
provided, for the benefit of people who have unreliable internet
connections, or who need to copy the distribution onto floppy disks:
em207-b*.zip
This is equivalent to getting emacs-20.7-bin-i386.tar.gz above.
The lisp source is available as em207-l*.zip.
* Distributions for non-x86 platforms
I try to make this port available for all platforms supported by
Windows (it should build on all supported Windows NT/9x platforms).
However, I do not always have access to non-x86 platforms, and so I
cannot guarantee to provide precompiled distributions for the other
platforms myself. If you find there are no binaries for your
platform, and you have access to a Microsoft compiler, then you can
download the source and compile Emacs yourself (and, if you do, please
consider contributing your executables; send me mail and we can make
arrangements for making them available on this ftp server.)
* Unpacking distributions
Programs for handling the distribution file formats can be found in
the utilities directory:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/windows/emacs/utilities
For gzipped tar files, you will need either gunzip.exe and tar.exe
together, or djtarnt.exe. djtarnt.exe can also unpack .zip files. I
strongly urge you to use these utilities since they were the ones used
to create the distributions; the most common problem people have in
trying to get Emacs to run is due to some other utility program
corrupting the distribution while unpacking.
Open a command prompt (MSDOS) window. Decide on a directory in which
to place Emacs. Move the distribution to that directory, and then
unpack it as follows.
If you have the gzipped tar version, use gunzip to uncompress the tar
file on the fly, and pipe the output through tar with the "xvf" flags
to extract the files from the tar file:
% gunzip -c some.tar.gz | tar xvf -
You may see messages from tar about not being able to change the
modification time on directories, and from gunzip complaining about a
broken pipe. These messages are harmless and you can ignore them. On
Windows NT, unpacking tarballs this way leaves them in compressed
form, taking up less space on disk. Unfortunately, on Windows 95 and
98, a large temporary file is created, so it is better to use the
djtarnt.exe program, which performs the equivalent operation in one
step:
% djtarnt -x some.tar.gz
You may be prompted to rename or overwrite directories when using
djtarnt: simply type return to continue (this is harmless).
If you have the multi-file .zip distribution, use djtarnt to unpack
all of the .zip files:
% djtarnt -x *.zip
Once you have unpacked a precompiled distribution of Emacs, it should
have the following subdirectories:
bin etc info lisp lock site-lisp
If your utility failed to create the lock directory, then you can
simply create it by hand (it is initially empty).
* Unpacking with other tools
If you do use other utility programs to unpack the distribution, check
the following to be sure the distribution was not corrupted:
+ Be sure to disable the CR/LF translation or the executables will be
unusable. Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this translation
by default. If you are using WinZipNT, disable it. (I don't have
WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific commands necessary
to disable it.)
+ Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3. For example, there
should be a file lisp/abbrevlist.el; if this has been truncated to
abbrevli.el, your distribution has been corrupted while unpacking
and Emacs will not start.
+ I've been told that some utilities (WinZip again?) don't create the
lock subdirectory. The lock subdirectory needs to be created.
+ I've also had reports that the "gnu-win32" port of tar corrupts the
executables. Use the version of tar or djtarnt in the utilities
directory instead.
If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
below.
* Compiling from source
If you would like to compile Emacs from source, download the source
distribution, unpack it in the same manner as a precompiled
distribution, and look in the file nt/INSTALL for detailed directions.
Note, though, that you must have a Microsoft compiler to compile the
source. (Support for compiling with gcc 2.95 or later will be
available in a future release.)
* Further information
There is a web page that serves as a FAQ at:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
There is also a mailing list for discussing issues related to this
port of Emacs. For information about the list, send a message to
ntemacs-users-request@cs.washington.edu with the word "info" in the
*body* of the message. To subscribe to the list, send a message to
the same address with the word "subscribe" in the body of the message;
similarly, to unsubscribe from the list, send a message with the word
"unsubscribe" in the message body.
Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.
These are particuarly good for help with general issues which aren't
specific to the Windows port of Emacs. The main news groups to use
for seeking help are:
gnu.emacs.help
comp.emacs
There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
updated Emacs packages on this group:
gnu.emacs.sources
You are also always welcome to send me mail directly. If you don't
hear from me immediately, however, don't worry; it sometimes takes me
a few days (or longer) to get to all of my mail regarding Emacs.
Enjoy!
Andrew Innes
(andrewi@gnu.org)